Lesson 12
Life on a desert island
【New words and expressions】 生词和短语
★desert island
荒岛
desert: 沙漠 背弃,遗弃
dessert: 甜点
★unrealistic
adj. 不真实
★paradise
n. 天堂,乐士
A lot of people imagine the USA as their paradise.
heaven: 天堂,天国,也指死亡
★wretched
adj. 可怜的,艰苦的
miserable
lead a wretched/miserable/terrible life
★starve
v. 挨饿
starve to death
★element
n. 成分
★opportunity
n. 机会
golden opportunity
Opportunity knocks only once.
chance: 表机会时可以与opportunity互换,表可能性时则不可
There is a chance that I will see him
The chances are that he will be elected the president.
+of,to
★coral
n. 珊瑚
★Virgin Islands
维尔京群岛
★Miami
n. 迈阿密(美国最南的城市)
★dinghy
n. 救生筏,小船
★Caribbean
n. 加勒比海
★spear gun
捕鱼枪
★lobster
n. 龙虾
★tanker
n. 油轮
★genuinely
adv. 由衷地
He is genuinely thankful to me
genuine(adj.)
(n.)genuineness
★Robinson Crusoe
鲁滨孙.克鲁索(小说《鲁滨孙漂流记》主人公) 荒岛生活
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
听录音,然后回答以下问题。
What was exceptional about the two men's stay on the desert island?
Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island. We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines. Life there is simple and good. Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work. The other side of the picture is quite the opposite. Life on a desert island is wretched. You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, Waiting for a boat which never comes. Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures, but few us have had the opportunity to find out.
Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer. They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired. During the journey, their boat began to sink. They quickly loaded a small rubber dinghy with food, matches, and cans of beer and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean until they arrived at a tiny coral island. There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, but this did not prove to be a problem. The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy. As they had brought a spear gun with them, they had plenty to eat. They caught lobster and fish every day,and, as one of them put it 'ate like kings'. When a passing tanker rescued them five days later, both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.
参考译文
我们许多人对于荒岛生活有一种不切实际的想法。我们有时想象荒岛是阳光终日普照的天堂。在那里,生活简单又美好。成